Jeffrey Pyne: 'I don't have a problem with my mom. I've never had a problem with her.'

The Oakland Press /DOUG BAUMAN
Jeffrey Pyne of Highland Twp. stands as the jury for his murder trial walks into the Oakland County Circuit Courtroom of Judge Leo Bowman. Pyne is accused of murdering his mother.

Jurors watched a police interview with Jeffrey Pyne during a brief but eventful day of testimony in his murder trial Wednesday.

"We didn't even argue today," Pyne said in his interview with Oakland County Sheriff's detectives, which occurred around 11:30 p.m. May 27, 2011.

On Twitter, follow @Dave_Phillips1 for the latest on the Pyne trial.

Hours earlier, Pyne's mother, Ruth Pyne, was found beaten and stabbed to death in the garage of their Highland Township home. Jeffrey Pyne is charged with first-degree premeditated murder in her death.

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Jeffrey Pyne said he woke up around 10 a.m. that day and lounged around the house for a bit before his mother returned from the store.

"She got home from grocery shopping and I helped her bring the groceries in and put some of them away," Pyne told detectives.

After the groceries were put away, Ruth Pyne "went upstairs to lay down, because when I left, that's where she was," Jeffrey Pyne said.

He said the family had been getting along really well, particularly since Ruth Pyne's bipolar condition began improving.

"As she gets better, everybody's relationship in the house gets better," he said.

"When she goes manic, it puts a lot of stress on us all and it's tough around the house, but it hasn't been that way since September (2010)."

Pyne described a 2009 incident in which his mother hit him after accusing him of stealing her debit card.

He had used the card to purchase her medication for her and returned the card after the purchase.

"We drove home and later that night, she thought I stole her debit card from her," Pyne said.

"She got really mad. That was the first time she hit me, just open-handed across the face.

"She just snapped and smacked me. It wasn't a big deal."

Ruth Pyne was arrested in 2010 for assaulting Jeffrey Pyne, according to testimony from Oakland County Sheriff's Detective David Hendrick.

Hendrick conducted the interview with Pyne and asked about that incident. Pyne said he heard his parents screaming at each other and went into their bedroom to check on them.

"She came at me," he said.

"She launched out of bed, grabbed me by the throat and started hitting me."

Detectives asked Pyne several times whether he had anything to do with his mother's death and whether he knew anyone who would want to kill her.

"I don't know anybody who's violent, really," Pyne said.

"I went to a Christian school. I was friends with a bunch of nice kids."

Investigators noticed Pyne's blistered hands and scratched forearms. He said he injured his hands on a pallet, while a goat that got out of the pen at his workplace caused the scratches.

"I don't have a problem with my mom," Pyne told the detectives.

"I've never had a problem with her. The only issue I had is I wanted her to take her medicine. That's the only problem I've ever had with her."

He described one of the last encounters he had with his mother.

"I gave her a hug after we put the groceries away, and she was fine," Pyne said.

In earlier testimony, Hendrick said investigators determined that three other prospective suspects had solid alibis in the case.

A handyman who did some work at the Pyne home in 2009 had a solid alibi, while a lawn crew that was spotted in the area on the day of the homicide had left the area before 10:30 a.m. that day -- well before Ruth Pyne's body was discovered round 2:30 p.m.

Bernie Pyne, Ruth's husband and Jeffrey's father, had been having lunch with coworkers shortly before Ruth Pyne's body was discovered.